[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Need a calculator that knows about coulombs



On Monday 28 December 2015 04:30:06 Jörg-Volker Peetz wrote:

> Gene Heskett wrote on 12/23/15 16:12:
> > On Wednesday 23 December 2015 08:49:34 Jörg-Volker Peetz wrote:
> >> e.g., Qucs
> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quite_Universal_Circuit_Simulator
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> jvp.
> >
> > Sounds like exactly what might be useful here. But no qucs exists in
> > the wheezy repos. Dowloaded src, will see if it will build on
> > wheezy.
>
> Could you get Qucs working?

Yes and no. I've drawn a schematic but cannot make it simulate it.  Going 
out to the workbench and building it with my limited junk box parts 
assortment results in a working circuit, if you don't mind your coffee 
being lukewarm by the time it fires. :(  I have extracted some more 
parts from scrap electronics, which may result in too fast a response, 
some 0.01 uF caps for the pump cap, and a couple .22 uF's for the 
storage cap, and 1n914 si diodes for test, but I have some schottky's, 
an assortment of tantalum caps, a few hexfets & such coming from 
aliexpress via China Post, but they'll be into 2016 by the time they get 
here.  And I haven't carved up a pcb to hold it all yet either. PCB I 
have, but I'll have to carve isolation islands by hand and surface mount 
the leaded parts. Thats time consuming when the mills spindle is 100x 
too slow to spin an etching tool correctly. 2" per minute or less. I 
have done it, using eagle for the drawing source, but the etching is 
similar to watching paint dry. I will likely use a 1/16" carbide mill so 
I don't have to retrace so many times to get an adequate separation of 
the copper. The std v tip etch tool only cuts a thou deep and wide 
unless you want to wear it out cutting the glass under the copper.
 
The qucs simulation is hampered by its lack of two part models, a decent 
hexfet, and a total lack of anything that looks like a 40 Amp SSR.  I 
tried to make an enhancement mode hexfet from an n channel MOSFET, but 
it wants the blanks filled in with info only the mask designer and 
silicon foundry would know.  In that regard, its obvious I don't know 
what the heck I am doing, darn it. 

> By the way, I just remember there's the Emacs builtin calculator
> "calc" which a.o. can handle expressions with units.

I've looked at units, and it could probably be scripted to do what I 
want, but I'd need a better grasp of math to do it and get results out 
of gnuplot by 1/31/16. :(  I can capture it on a digital scope in 10 
seconds once the soldering iron has pasted a test circuit together. :)

> Regards,
> jvp.


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>


Reply to: